has often been used as a slow or sudden means to marginalize, dominate or eliminate ideas or peoples, esp. 'others.' Well known examples include the horrific genocide of Native Americans in the US and Americas; systemic enslavement and oppression of black people in America during slavery and Jim Crow; the extermination of Armenians by Ottomans c. 1915; and persecution of Jews in Europe with pogroms in the Middle Ages and into the 20th c. Holocaust.
Years ago while working at the National Archives, I was stunned when a supervisor in charge of the main research room once said the staff there were inundated with 'researchers' requesting original primary records, documents and books all in order to produce contradicting, revisionist publications to alter and 're-write' history. Main topics targeted were US slavery and the Civil War, the Nazi Holocaust and Second World War, and historical accounts, evidence and ideas of other eras, all for ideological and political purposes.
Other instances of eliminating history and culture especially through banning books, religion and language include the British with Irish Catholics, and Europeans who condemned and criminalized populations during the Spanish Inquisition, the religious wars of the 16th century, and in the 1930s and 40s by fascist regimes in Spain, Italy and Germany that opposed and suppressed pro republican and democratic peoples, books, ideas, principles and institutions.
In the US from the 1860s until the 1950s, Native American children were removed from their families and educated at special schools where they could not speak their own language or follow native customs. They were forced to speak only English, wear westernized clothing and cut their long hair short to delete their heritage and become Americanized. If the students resisted or disobeyed, harsh punishments were inflicted on them.
Banning valuable historical books, artifacts and evidence, and eliminating ideas and customs even if considered objectionable is always a serious and sensitive matter to be be handled cautiously with integrity and genuine regard for preserving accuracy and truth.
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